Bathrooms
by DrunkenLlamasRuleTheWorld
Summary: Bathrooms aren't the best place to hide in the day, so what makes you think it's any better at night? Chased through the school because he wanted to retrieve his English book before class started the next day, Blue Beetle is cornered by a strange…person. /Challenge-Shot./


**Bathrooms**

**Summary:  
**Bathrooms aren't the best place to hide in the day, so what makes you think it's any better at night? Chased through the school because he wanted to retrieve his English book before class started the next day, Blue Beetle is cornered by a strange…person. /Challenge./**  
Inspiration:  
**_I Write Sins Not_ Tragedies by Panic! At The Disco, and; _Ready To Go _By Panic! At The Disco.  
(Hm…anyone notice the similarities? XD)  
**Rating:  
**High T, low M.**  
Guest Stars:  
**….No one really….Except Malcolm. :3 He's special that way.

"Why do I always seem to get stuck at school, even after it ends?" Jaime muttered to himself, cautiously walking the darkened halls.

_'Incompatible,' _Echoed in his head and Jaime grimaced.

"Stupid sentient life form," he grumbled quietly, "I wasn't talking to you!"

_'Then who were you talking to? There's no-one else around.'_

"I was talking to _myself._" Jaime said, glancing around suspiciously in case someone _could_ hear him.

The boy could almost see the bug attached to his spine roll its eyes (well, if the thing _had _eyes). _'I _am_ you.'_ It said, and Jaime made an annoyed gesture.

"_I'm_ me!" Jaime said to the bug.

_'And I am a part of you.'_

"That's just like the whole 'I think, therefore I am'"

_'It is.'_

Jaime huffed, nervous energy racing through him as he turned a corner. **Why was school so much creepier in the dark?** He thought to himself, rubbing his arms to try and get rid of the Goosebumps rising on his chocolate flesh.

'_It is just mental stimulus responding to a common situation._'

_"_I don't care what it is; knowing doesn't help in any way-!_"_ He shivered slightly, feeling a cold draft ruffle the edges of his school uniform.

**Wait…what!.?**

_'DUCK!' _The bug screamed in his mind and Jaime's body complied instantly, throwing himself to the floor as something whistled over his head.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Jaime shrieked, not caring about being quiet anymore, scrambling up and racing away.

_'Incompatible.'_

"Don't say that if you don't know!" Jaime hissed at the bug, swinging round to another corridor and almost slipping on the cold floor. "Don't say anything if you don't know but 'no' or 'I don't know!' "

_'Fine!' _It snapped at him. _'You deal with this yourself then!' _

"Hey, wait-!" Jaime protested angrily, throwing himself behind a row of lockers, chest heaving.

_'Yes?' _

"At least help me _fight!_" Jaime said, carefully peering round the side of the blue lockers, heart thumping in his throat.

"Boo," Came from behind him, as well as a breath of air that crawled across his neck and sent terrified shivers across his spine. Jaime's eyes went wide and he took a great gasp of air. Almost frozen, he turned slowly, ready to face his attacker. The bug quickly formed his hand into his sonic cannon.

He finished the turn and stared, mouth slightly parted and eyes squinting into the darkness in an effort to see through the dark.

There was no one there. Jaime gulped, his throat clenched in fear.

"Run young one," Came a strong, silky voice from the darkness. "Run so that I may have the thrill of chasing you…"

Jaime bolted.

He ran back the way he came, feet pounding the floor, sound echoing in the empty building. He raced through the corridors till he came to the front door and pulled on the handle, trying to get it to open. "Por favour!" He hissed, stepping back and raising his left arm, balancing it with his right as the bug charged the sonic cannon. It glowed blue in the shadows, lighting up the area.

Still, Jaime was oblivious when the figure stepped from the dark into his blue glow.

Its figure was almost indistinguishable from its surroundings, as though the black had stuck to it like a cloak or he was blending into the surroundings. It curled around Jaime like a snake, not touching his skin and barely letting the other male know it was there.

"Hello." It said, the feature one could take as a face pressed close against Jaime's own.

Jaime jolted, the sonic blast angling upwards as he stepped back and lost his balance on the thing's smoky feet. The thing hovered slightly in the air above the boy, and then slowly came down, twining around the barrel of Jaime's blaster. It was forming a body, almost as though it drew energy from the beetle because for every centimetre it crept lower, the gun on Jaime's hand turned red and vanished till all that was left was his normal brown skin.

Jaime stared at his arm in confusion, shocked into stillness. He tried to reform the beetle's armour, but all that happened was that the male teen – for how could it be anything else now that it's figure had become clearer? – grew even stronger and lost more of its, _his,_ smoky outline.

The person's hands were pressed on both sides on Jaime's head and Jaime's legs were pinned by its knees. It bent his head till its breath was soft against Jaime's face, then dove downwards and captured Jaime's lips with its own, biting with its canines until the skin broke and Jaime felt its tongue lick the blood from his lips. Then it bent its head to Jaime's ear, and, with a breath the made Jaime shake, said again, "Run."

Then, it took its weight from on top of Jaime and rolled upwards till it stood, and kicked him in the side to get him to move. Wasting no time, Jaime scrambled to his feet and ran, turning corners at a break neck pace. Behind him, he heard the creature howl, and it made Jaime's blood turn to ice and caused him run faster. One hand was pressed against his lip, trying to stop the bleeding, another on his side in an attempt to quell the stitch and the pain from where the thing had kicked him.

'**Beetle!**' He cried in his mind desperately, now wishing the opposite of what he normally longed for - that the bug would talk to him.

Panting, he barricaded himself in the men's bathroom, then locked himself in the far end stall. '**Beetle, please, ****_TALK TO ME!_**** I need your help!**'

All he heard from the beetle was silence. His back was pulsing too, sending waves of pain through his body. He quickly hitched his shirt and jacket up and twisted so he could see the blue beetle insignia on his back, then gasped when he saw what it looked like now. If it was possible, Jaime would've said the life form was sick – it stuck out of his skin like a burn, and was an angry, inflamed red.

'**Beetle…?**' Jaime asked again, curious and worried about whether or not it would answer.

Nothing. Jaime's tongue licked his dry, blood incrusted lips, and swallowed hard. He almost started swearing in Portuguese, until his ears caught the faint sound of _something_.

He held still, every nerve in his brain screaming at him to get up, to run, to _escape_!

"Little bitty blue…," Crooned a voice, right outside the bathroom. "Come out come out~!" Then, it took on a rougher edged tone. "Or I'm coming in!" The door blew off its hinges, crashing into the far wall a piece of rumpled, broken metal.

Jaime had his hands over his head, faint shakings of white plaster falling from the ceiling to dust his hair, and heard the crash as the stall doors were pushed inwards so far and so hard that they stuck into the concrete wall and the wood of the stall next to them.

The thing was slowly making its way towards Jaime's hiding spot, and he clambered up to the top of the toilet so that he wouldn't get crushed by the door and so that he could leap over the thing's head and run out. Jaime heard the stall next to him bang inwards, and swallowed hard – it was his stall's turn next.

However, all that happened was the little locked sign jiggled. Jaime watched the door with baited breath, eyes focused so hard on the higher part of the wood he missed it when a liquid shadow oozed under the door and started to reform the thing that had been chasing him.

"Hello." It purred as soon as it formed completely. Jaime jumped, banging his head against the cold tiles and then slipping from his precarious perch. He landed with a thump on the closed toilet seat, hitting his head again, this time against the porcelain.

It glided towards him, so light on its feet Jaime wondered how he'd heard it before.

"I'm Malcolm." It purred, holding out his hand to shake.

Jaime didn't take the offered hand and Malcolm frowned, before moving so fast Jaime only saw a blur. The next second, Jaime found his hand in Malcolm's hands, and saw his skin was being brought up to the other teen's mouth. Jaime tried to snatch his hand away, and cried out when Malcolm's grip tightened so much Jaime thought he heard his bones creak.

"What are you?" Jaime whispered, glaring as Malcolm gave his hand a kiss and let it drop.

"Me?" Malcolm asked innocently, "Why, I'm just a simple shadow pleased to have made your acquaintance, blue." His tongue darted from his mouth, licking his lips as though he envisioned something tasty, and Jaime was horrified to see Malcolm's tongue was red with his blood. "Very pleased…," Malcolm repeated, and Jaime stared at him, only now able to take in what he looked like.

Malcolm was tall – about six foot – with unnaturally blonde hair, so light it was actually white, and looked to give off a faint glow. His eyes were bright red and deep black; the black of his mid-thigh length high collared coat, and the black of his loose jeans. His skin was the only thing about him that looked reasonably normal - to a computer nerd who came out in the sun only once every three years. It was pale, and looked vaguely sickly to Jaime, but with every second the host of the Blue Beetle stared at Malcolm, his skin seemed to take on a healthier tone. The jacket itself was parted slightly, allowing a brief glimpse of a dark crimson button-up shirt to show through the gap.

Malcolm flexed slightly as Jaime watched, almost as though the weird thing could see he was being observed, and offered the other teen a cocky smirk.

Jaime's brown eyes narrowed in a challenging glare, and at the semblance of defiance, the blonde chuckled - yes, _chuckled_ - at him.

Scooting closer, while Jaime scooted as far away as he could before his back banged against the mouldy wall of the bathroom stall, Malcolm stalked him like a tiger would a deer, grin stretching like a Cheshire Cat's as he eyed the still-quite-frightened-but-not-showing-it Jaime.

The Shadow's pale hands thwacked against the wall, effectively catching Jaime in-between, his face only a few scant inches away from the Hispanic teen pressed against the wall, "Nothing personal." Malcolm confided, moving his head to take in the scent that was all Jaime and pure power, "But a Shadow's gotta eat, no?"

Then, Malcolm's teeth sunk into his neck and Jaime gasped, hands trying frantically to swat the almost vampiric-natured shadow away from him, before his head filled with a low buzz of static and his sight went black, mind relinquishing itself to the grip of unconsciousness.

* * *

**A/N**: Well, my first multi-paragraphed fanfiction that I'm actually happy with! You guys like? ^^

And the thing with Malcolm? Yeah, he's not gonna show up, like, at all unless you guys want him to...

Anyway! Onto the challenge!

Yes, that's right. I challenge you all to finish this story! :3 I wanna see what you all come up with - no rules, just send me the link when you post...And to all you lazy people who don't want to write, I'll MIGHT be trying to do my own take on this. ;) So have fun, go crazy!


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